Small Business Saturday originated in 2010 as a marketing campaign created by American Express to support local small businesses during the holiday shopping season, especially in the wake of the Great Recession.

Quick origin facts

  • The very first Small Business Saturday was held on November 27, 2010, the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the United States.
  • It was designed as a counterbalance to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, encouraging shoppers to ā€œshop smallā€ at local, brickā€‘andā€‘mortar businesses instead of only big-box retailers and large online stores.
  • In 2011, political leaders and organizations, including the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Small Business Administration, publicly backed the day, helping cement it as an annual nationwide event.

Why it was created

  • Many small businesses were still struggling from the 2008 financial crisis, and American Express launched the campaign to drive more holiday traffic and spending into local communities.
  • The day quickly evolved from a one-off promotion into a broader ā€œShop Smallā€ movement that now recurs every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.